Symposium: "A New Fascism?"
December 17, 2016, 10:30am-7pm
Fridericianum
Friedrichsplatz 18
34117 Kassel
Germany
<http://www.fridericianum.org>www.fridericianum.org
In conjunction with the exhibition Two A.M. by
Loretta Fahrenholz, the Fridericianum is hosting
a symposium devoted to an exposition of new forms
of fascism. In her novel entitled Nach
Mitternacht (After Midnight, 1937), Irmgard Keun
describes everyday life in Nazi Germany in the
late 1930s under the dominant influences of fear,
government control, and despotism. In her current
exhibition at the Fridericianum, artist Loretta
Fahrenholz calls attention to similar
contemporary phenomena. Based loosely on Keun's
exile novel, her Two A.M. is a socio-fiction film
in which she presents frightening analogies to
present-day surveillance, capitalism and
re-emerging fascism.
One of the essential characteristics of
representatives of the new Right, from the
Hungarian Prime Minister to Marine Le Pen, is
that they all regard themselves as democrats. And
when we listen to them, they seem to become more
democratic every day. Without blushing, the AfD
compares itself to the Third Reich resistance
group known as the "Weiße Rose." And the French
Front National proudly points out that it was the
only party in France whose members voted in a
democratic referendum on the European
constitution. All of the established parties in
France had refused to take part in such a
referendum for fear that the European
constitution would ultimately be rejected.
Thus the obscurity of European institutions can
surely be cited as one of the reasons for the
emergence of new right-wing movements in all
European countries. And the increasing popularity
of the new right-wing and nationalist parties can
also be attributed at least in part to the
movements of migrants and refugees, which are
certain to continue unabated in the foreseeable
future. We must agree with Zeev Sternhell, who
insists that the fascist mentality that emerged
in the early 20th century never really
disappeared. Fascist currents have always existed
in more or less visible form, and they are now
reappearing in a new guise. Fascism has
reinvented itself, as Alain Badiou pointed out
ten years ago. It has assumed new forms which
must be analyzed. And the old theories regarding
fascism are no longer adequate for that purpose.
10:30am-1pm
Susanne Pfeffer
Introduction
Franco "Bifo" Berardi
"A Short History of the Humiliation: National
Workerism and the Showdown of Two Centuries of
Colonialism"
Wilhelm Heitmeyer
"Group-Focused Enmity, Social Disintegration and
Right-Wing Populism in a Process of Escalation"
2-4pm
Chantal Mouffe
"The Populist Moment"
G. M. Tamás
"Fascism Without Fascism"
4:30-7pm
Didier Eribon
"What's Next? Reflections on the Categories of Political Theory"
Panel discussion
Moderated by Gernot Kamecke